Family Drop-in Centre in Neepawa to open soon
- Details
- Published on Thursday, September 1, 2016
By Kira Paterson
The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
At the end of September, families in the community of Neepawa will have a place to find resources and ask questions. Several local agencies and organizations have banded together to start up a pilot project of a family resource drop-in centre.
Don Walmsley, coordinator at Neepawa and Area Immigrant Settlement Services (NAISS), explained that this was an idea that has been mentioned to him a few times in the past. His lead English as an Additional Language teacher brought it up about a year ago and then more recently, Child and Family Services (CFS) approached him and asked if it was something that the community could use. He agreed that it could be, so the process began.
“The next step was we called a meeting of a number of different agencies that dealt with children or families. That included the ministerial, Mayor de Groot came from the Town, [Budz n’ Bloom] daycare, [Neepawa] Nursery School, Salvation Army, Beautiful Plains School Division [and the Regional Health Authority]. So we had a number of different organizations that have direct contact or are working with families or kids in some form or another,” explained Walmsley.
The agencies agreed that this idea was something that could benefit the community, so they formed a steering committee for the project and discussed what they could do to make it happen.
They have decided to run it every other Wednesday, from 9 am to 1 pm for a year. “Essentially, it’s just for families to be able to come in, sit, meet, chat... to talk, to ask questions, because we will have people there,” Walmsley said. “It’s like an information resource, basically.” He added that it’s not only going to be for family resources, but people can also go there to ask where they can access certain services in town. People dropping in can also use it as an outlet to make suggestions on different family services they think would benefit the community. “We see it as an information providing opportunity, as well as an information receiving,” Walmsley explained.
In order to offer information about local resources and services, the steering committee is encouraging agencies and organizations in town to provide them with information about the services they provide, such as brochures or pamphlets, to refer to and give to people visiting the drop-in centre.
The first day that the drop-in centre will be open is on Wednesday, Sept. 28 and it will continue every other Wednesday from then. The location is the back room of the Neepawa Public Library, 280 Davidson Street.
The agencies will come together to analyze how the project has been going after six months, then again at the end of the year to decide where to go from there. They will be keeping track of the traffic going through the centre as well as what kinds of questions those people ask. “This is a pilot project... and we’re putting it in place to see if 1) there is a need for this, 2) what more do we need to do in terms of meeting the needs of the people that come through?” said Walmsley. He added that everyone on the committee is excited to see how this will work out.
They’re not sure exactly where this idea will go after the first year, but what they do know is that they will need a permanent location and they are hoping community members will take over the operation. “Ultimately what we’d like to see is this taken over by a community group of volunteers,” Walmsley noted. He said that the agencies involved have the capability to get this project started, but they would like it to end up being run “by people, for people,” as he put it. The agencies will still be willing to help the volunteer group get started, answer any questions a new committee may have about the operation of the centre and provide resources to whoever takes it over.
As of right now, handing it off to community members is in the long term plan. Short term, they are looking for volunteers to be at the centre on the Wednesdays, as well as donations of basic supplies (i.e. crayons, paper, coffee, baked goods, tubs to store their supplies, etc.) and informational resources. “If people are interested in volunteering, we’d love to hear,” Walmsley stressed. “If you are interested you can contact myself [Don Walmsley at NAISS, 204-476-2055], Amanda Naughton-Gale at Salvation Army [204-476-5869], or you can contact Rhonda Dickenson at the Beautiful Plains School Division [204-476-2387].” Anyone who has supplies or resources to give to the centre can also contact those people.
